The exhibition presents the history together with the operations of the Mechanism, as well as aspects of ancient astronomy and technology essential for understanding its operation.
The Mechanism has puzzled and intrigued science and technology historians since it was recovered from an 80 BC wreck off the island of Antikythera.
In 1901, sponge divers working off the island found the remains of a clock like mechanism 2,000 years old. The mechanism now appears to have been a device for calculating the motions of stars and planets.
Dated to about 150-100 BC, the intricacy of the way in which the Mechanism works was so startling to scientists that initially they questioned the device's dating, doubting it could be as old as it really was. Technological artefacts of similar complexity did not reappear before the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks first appeared in Europe.
To this day, many scientists are still trying to decipher the device, but are unable to agree on just how the ancient Greeks were able to create such a complex, precise and sophisticated instrument more than 2,000 years ago.
The device is about 33 cm high, 17 cm wide, and 9 cm thick, made of bronze and originally mounted in a wooden frame. It was inscribed with a text of over 2,000 characters, many of which have only just recently been deciphered.
The mechanism is the oldest known complex scientific calculator, and is sometimes called the first known analogue computer.
It has three main dials, one on the front, and two on the back. The front dial has two concentric scales. The outer ring is marked off with the days of the 365-day Egyptian calendar. Inside this, there is a second dial marked with the Greek signs of the Zodiac and divided into degrees. The calendar dial can be moved to compensate for the effect of the extra quarter day in the solar year (there are 365.2422 days per year) by turning the scale backwards one day every four years. Worthy of note is that the Julian calendar, the first calendar of the region to contain leap years, was not introduced until about 46 BC, up to a century after the device was said to have been built.
The complexity of the gears found within the Antikythera Mechanism baffled scientists, since this type of "technology" was not thought to have been in existence until around 1575, while many feel that the Mechanism helps to explain how such wonderful phenomena as the ancient pyramids, the Greek Coliseum, and the Parthenon were built with such exquisite detail.
In fact, one scientist commented jokingly that this device was so well constructed, he doubted the ancient Greeks ever had to say: "My computer is down."
The Museum of Natural History, located at Sofoklis Venizelos Avenue, in the Iraklion Port, is open Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:00, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00, and ticket prices are 6 euros for adults and 3 euros for children.
Bron: Khronicles
